In-game rewards for player retention

Isn't that literally the League Challenges we already have on PoE1?

No ranking system in those (and frankly I'd prefer those to not be there), but it's still a milestone system that rewards cosmetics the more you complete. I'm sure it'll hit PoE2 soon enough.

Let me give an example.

In season 1 I played the game for 12 weeks, just because I played attribute stacker and I wanted astramentis.

But in season 2 I played only untill lvl 86, because I simply feeled like there was nothing to grind for, nothing to do.

In season 3 I played more because there was a lot of new cool stuff. But how often can you add a ton of new cool stuff? (We saw that in season 4. Not much new cool mechanics. Dropped the league in 2 weeks).

Probably not the proper approach, brother. If you need stupid cosmetics to retain mushed TikTok brains, you know the basic game design is probably flawed. Just make the game good and show the community that you care. When I play the game and enjoy it, I wanna support the developers and I will buy cosmetics or whatever.

I can give you two examples. I like Counter-Strike and play it a lot, but the way the game development is handled offends me as a player and I don't wanna spend anything. On the other hand, I love Hollow Knight and appreciate so much what just a few people have achieved, that I am willing to buy whatever they release.